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Millennial actor and Internet's love, Ahsaas Channa talks about the second season of Hostel Daze and much more in this fun interview.
The very popular show exploring the life of engineering students staying in a hostel, Hostel Daze is back with its second installment on Amazon Prime Video. This second season promises to bring forth more masti, adventure, madness, and high doses of nostalgia. As of now, the 6 juniors - Ankit, Jaat, Chirag, Jhantoo, Akanksha, and Nabomita are now seniors. They embark on a new journey entering the second year of college and exploring the notorious and ever-challenging life in a college hostel packed with twists and turns and highs and lows. Created by TVF, written by Harish Peddinti, Saurabh Khanna, Suprith Kundar, and directed by Amir Musanna and Sangram Naiksatam, the quirky comedy-drama features young talent including Adarsh Gourav, Ahsaas Channa, Ayushi Gupta, Luv Vispute, Nikhil Vijay, and Shubham Gaur. We had a chance to interact with a cast member of the show, Ahsaas Channa aka Akansha to find out all about this new season of the show and gain insight into her character.
Ahsaas Channa attracts you because of her real to life characters. Her oh-so-natural acting and relatability be it through her videos with her mother or her coming of age characters makes a lot of the youth feel heard and seen. And how can we forget that cute adorable little boy that entertained us in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and Oh My friend Ganesha? So while we did talk about the show and her character, Akansha's graph in Hostel Daze 2, we also chatted on what makes Ahsaas such a natural and relatable person.
Here's what Ahsaas had to share with us:
How has the character graph of Akansha changed from season 1 considering the fact that you're a senior in the show now?
If you didn’t actually explore Akansha’s character in season 1, how much ever you knew her, it was actually not her. If you go back to the season, you’ll realize what I am talking about. It was not her it was Jhantoo, so you don’t really know who Akansha is, how she thinks and what her character is like. It wasn’t something that we had to do or had to like work on for season 2 considering that all of them have grown up, they have become seniors now. Compared to the four boys, the girls did not really have to do their research into thinking about how they are going to grow as a character. In fact, in a lot of ways, their characters were fleshed out in the second season. It was a whole different character that was being introduced in the second season because like I said they weren’t as explored as they are in season 2. We actually created Akansha this time, we explored how she is going to be, we got an insight into how she is, so it was different definitely. The four guys had to go through that transition phase where they were freshers in the first season and now they are seniors in the second. That transition was more on the guy's side but Nabomita and Akansha’s characters were very new, they were very fresh.
Since your character graph has had a whole journey, do you have any particular scene that stayed with you even after finishing the shoot?
There was this one particular scene, it’s in the third or the fourth episode where there is a whole monologue in front of Ankit (Adarsh) and that stayed with me for a very long time because I had been preparing for days, weeks prior, so finally when I did it, I was very nervous and it went very well. For the next few days, I was still thinking about it and it usually happens when I am doing a scene, I always keep thinking about that scene, and then later after two-three days I feel like I could have done this in another way. Also, that monologue is very relatable if you've watched it. I can’t really reveal much about that scene because it’s a surprise but you'll know when you watch the show.
If I gave you an option to choose, which character would you have wanted to play from the show apart from Akansha?
Jatt! I really like Jatt’s character. I really like the Haryanvi that he speaks in the show and it’s just inherently so funny. He has the best role in the entire show I feel, even in the second season he has the best jokes. So it's always fun to see Shubham perform and he plays this character in a smooth manner and so gracefully.
What are similarities and differences have you found between your character, Akansha, and yourself?
The monologue is very relatable and since I sat with the writers before we read the scenes and we sat down, I gave a lot of insights about how Akansha should be like and the writers definitely had their own insights and their thoughts about who Akansha should be. I always try to keep my characters different from who I am actually. If I just play myself in every character, then it’s just going to be the same thing and people will get bored so I always try to be just as different as I can with every character that I play. But because the whole show is set in the real world and it's so realistic, you will find some similarities.
There is a natural element in you as Ahsaas Channa but how do you bring that out in your character, whether it's Akansha from Hostel Daze or Shivangi from Kota Factory, what brings out these attributes into your characters?
It’s something that we do in workshops, I sit with the director and writers and we figure out what she could be like. But there's always something that I do, that Ahsaas does that is similar to what the characters do but like I said I always try to be as different as I can. The way I talk, the way I look at people, and the way I laugh, these things will always be the same unless it’s a requirement, it’s something that the director wants differently but those differences come from those workshops, and that reading and the whole discussion with directors and the writers.
Have you ever lived an experience through a character that you always wanted to live as Ahsaas?
YES! The fact that I got to experience hostel life through Hostel Daze was something that I never thought I could experience because I had never been to a hostel in my life. When I turned 19, I never thought I would get to live a hostel life but I did through Akansha’s character. Even in Kota Factory, she's a medical student and I have never touched science in my life after 10th. I've always been an Arts student so being a medical student and learning medical terms is something that I never thought I would do and that was a crazy experience.
You are working with Amazon again. How was that experience, and how was it shooting with so many restrictions?
Shooting was slightly difficult and scary to be very honest because there is a pandemic going on but we followed all the protocols, we maintained social distancing, we were wearing masks, we couldn’t hug each other and we had to get tested over and over again which was a little bit of a pain but at the same time, we got that sense of security because we were always being tested so we knew that we're safe. It's scary but we were very grateful that we were able to come back on the sets, work, and shoot and earn money. The whole lockdown just got so scary, I had completely lost hope of going back on sets, and shooting and hearing action! But I was able to do that. It was a very unreal and surreal experience for sure but it’s something we just have to do and we can’t, it’s just something we have to live with. I'm very excited about Amazon and I get to tell people that I'm in an Amazon Prime show and a good one. So it’s always fun, Amazon is just very easy to work with, it's just one of those platforms where you can do just whatever you like and they will not have a problem with it. You have that liberty and you can be as creative and crazy as you want to be and it’s always fun. I am just very grateful, it’s two-two Amazon shows I am very happy.
Any show of Amazon that you've watched and felt like I wish I was a part of this?
I think Fleabag is something that I want to be a part of. I'm not saying I wanted to play Fleabag aka Phoebe Waller Bridge’s part but I just wanted to be a part of even chotta sa bhi part hota uss mein to kaash main hoti uss mein, I love that show. Family Man is also one of my favorite shows.
We can't wait for the new season of the Hostel Daze to hit soon on Amazon Prime Video, what about you? This TV show is coming on the platform on July 23 ie. tomorrow.